this morning on "early today," power play? a bold move by president obama sets the stage for another bitter battle over tax cuts on capitol hill. river of ruin. the worst wildfire in colorado's history turns a white water river jet black. and gush hour. a water main break in cna makes for a messy morning commute. captions paid for by nbc-universal television hello and good morning. i'm lynn berry. and today we begin with familiar ground. battle lines are being drawn on capitol hill after president obama planned to extend the bush

era tax cuts, but not for everyone. this as they plan to revisit the nation's health care reform law. nbc's brian mooar joins us from washington with the latest on all of this. brian, good morning. >> good morning, lynn. the house is headed forward for what looks like a show vote, but for the republicans, it's an important show in this electionee. >> the gentlelady yields back her time. >> reporter: house republicans head back into office today. >> they make you believe it's all free, but it's not. it's going to cost somebody, and that's going be the american citizen. >> the house is brushing aside the decision upholding the law and democrats sure to shoot down any appeal. it's over extending the bush era tax cut. >> the economic consequences of taking more money from successful people. >> reporter: senate republicans are pushing back to expend it

for one year, but only for those making less than $250,000 a year. >> let's not hold the vast majority of the americans and our entire economy hostage while we debate the merits of another tax cut for the wealthy. >> reporter: mitt romney in a radio interview called the proposal an economic misstep. >> we saw a terrible jobs report last week and now to add a higher tax on job creators and on small business is about the worst thing i could imagine to do if you want to create jobs. >> reporter: the president's telling congress not to even consider an across-the-board extension. he says he'll veto it. lynn? >> brian mooar in washington. brian, thanks so much. thankfully temperatures are falling in many parts of the country, but the problems created by the devastating recent heat wave are still on the rise. according to the u.s. government, record heat has left corn and soybeans in the worth state since 1988's american farm

belt and that means higher food prices could be on the way. nbc's jay gray has details. >> reporter: as a record meet wave finally begins to break, the concern, damage, and deadly effects still linger after temperatures over 100 degrees across much of the country for the past two weeks. >> it's a very dangerous circumstance. >> reporter: the extreme conditions are being blame for at least 784 deaths across 14 states and noaa scientists have confirmed what many of us already have felt. the fix six months of this year have been the hottest on record. >> we've seen worse conditions across the intermountain west stretching into the plains and the ohio valley and that's having a lot of impact on the ground such with the wildfires we receive and the agriculture. >> reporter: a cold front this week could drop temperatures in many places by 10 to 15 degrease bringing much relief and rain. >> our farmers are really hurting. >> reporter: drought conditions stretch over half of the country

right now creating what scientists call the largest drought foot prip for the 21st century. corn crops and many other crops have withered and died and any rain now is really little more than an insult to so many farmers who already lost the season. >> the rain today is not going to do us any good. it's over with on corn and mother nature hasn't been very good to us thise summer. >> reporter: a blistering summer that's really onto has just begun. and now for a look at your national and regional weather, here's nbc meteorologist bill karins with the weather channel a. a white water river has turned completely black. this thanks to runoff from weekly wildfires. kai yaerks showed this video result when heavy rains helped filled the rushing water with ash, charred degree, and mud. it came from the high park fire which burned for more than three weeks. in virginia, a security came captured the force of the storm that officials believed

was either a small tornado or a microburst. debris was send crashing to the ground. nooeb a cheerleading school and dabs school were ripped apart with people inside. a teenage girl jumped from a chair list along the jersey shore rather than just wait for her turn to get off. the storm rode in which left her in midair. the girl did at mitt she freaked out but said she was willing to risk breaking bones rather than be struck by a bolt. who knew animals could be such squares. a new zoo exhibit features giant leggo replicas not far from their real life counter parts. one of the animals took 37,000 bricks and nearly 400 hours to create. now for a look at your

national and regional weatherer, here's meteorologist todd santos with your national weather forecast. the other animals are like why won't you play with me. >> gross. all right. well, incredible. i think, lynn, i would have to say breaking bones is far better than getting struck by lightning. we're tracking a few showers and thunderstorms. i want to mention something note worthy out of the tropics. we have a major hurricane, that would be amelia, a cat 3. the good news is it's moving away from land and similar to what we had with daniel. these likely to weaken into a tropical storm if not today, later today. we'll keep an eye on the systems. as both approach, they're likely going to be downgraded to a depression status. you still see some of the same areas as yesterday that flared up during the heat of the afternoon with the showers and thunderstorms. we'll see that again across portions of the south, through the mountains and even the

carolinas and virginia. may see an isolated storm around d.c. the front is have that as a lifting should be quiet up toward new york, boston as well with some pretty mild temperatures this morning. 73 to start off in new york. 77 in d.c. and there's a quick look at temperatures by later on this afternoon and a look at your region. let's check out your local forecast. d.c., as i mentioned, just a chance for an isolated thunderstorm. get out there. sunshine, 87. nashville with a few isolated thunderstorms especially during the heat of the afternoon but temperatures get into the mid-80s. so kind of seems like a broken record, lynn, for at least some areas when we talk about the thunderstorms. we'll talk more about wednesday because for some areas it will continue. lart. thanks so much. coming up, earns up, no signs of heating up and what by far is america's favorite

flower? your early morning business headlines are straight ahead. they may have a prenup but katie holmes has a divorce vickstry of tom cruise. the bronx cheer for a yankee slugger. you're watching "early today."

good morning and welcome back to "early today." i'm lynn berry and here are some of your top headlines today. russia promised not to sign new weapons contracts with syriaor deliver armed had been ordered. government regulators say more than $200 million in customer funds appear to be missing from the accounts of u.s. futures broker pfg best. the company's founder tried to commit suicide outside its headquarters in cedar falls,

iowa. a federal judge tossed out cyclist lance armstrong's lawsuit aimed at moving ahead with charges that he used pornls enhancing drugs. >> an elaborate drug smuggling tunnel running more than 750 feet has been discovered under the border between mexico and arizona. the tunnel had electricity, ventilation, and even small cars to transport the drugs. and when you make a mistake at work, how many people notice? well, in china, a work crew accidentally punched a hole in a shanghai water main, and it sent a huge geyser of water more than 16 feet into the air. well, now here's an early look at how wall street's going to kick off the day. the dowd opened at 12,6367 aft

losing 36. in tokyo, the nikkei skidded 39 points, while in hong kong the hang seng was down 31. for a third straight session, stocks slid monday, thanks to worry over euro debt, asian weakness, and lower second quarter earnings. aluminum maker alcoa kicked off earnings after the bell posting a los. nefrms their profits still beat expectations and the growing aerospace and auto demand. alcoa edged up in late trade. overseas spain's ten-year bond yield rose above the 10% crisis level. euro said they're now ready to give them new loans and a year to slash its budgets and to bail out terms for its country's banks. >> in asia, more signs of a chinese slowdown. imports rose more than expected while inflation eased to 259-month low. baek here at home, visa and

mastercard fell on a downgrade blamed on consumer spending and sluggish growth. warning revenue would fall on soft chinese and european sales. reduced demand for coal and rising costed drove pave trot coal to file for bankruptcy. bright spots? amerigroup soared $4.5 billion. intel will buy 157 of dutch chip maker asml for more than $4 bill. campbell soup will pay 1 bnt $5 billion. consumer credit expanded at the fastest pace, a sign that americans are still spending. and finally when it comes to flowers, nothing smells sweeter business-wise than a rose. the u.s. imports roughly $1.5 billion a year, easily the nation's top-selling cut flower with most exported from colombia.

at baseball's all-star celebration in kansas city, a new york yankee is thunderously booed and a detroit slieger slugger makes home run derby history. your early morning sports headlines are straight ahead. and we all survived monday, so let's take a look at the middle of the week coming up. you're watching "early today." quick how many devices in your home use the internet?

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good morning. if you're just waking up, this is "early today." and in sports last night detroit tiger prince fielder became the second player in major league history to win multiple home run derby tires. here's nbc's fred roggin with an early look at all your sports headlines. joo good morning. last year robinson cano was a home run derby hero and yesterday he was treated like a zero. a bronx cheer for the yankees slugger, cano booed during introductions and every time he hit the ball because he didn't pick the royals, billy butler to take part in the derby. to the delight of the crowd cato didn't hit a single home run. there were plenty of home runs by everybody else. if butler was to take anyone's spot, it would have been mark

trumbu trumbull. peppered the roof in left center field several times. look at david ortiz. mark finished with 14 bombs but lost in a swing-off to jose bautista. prince fielder had the longest home run of the night. an estimated 476 feet. nobody else even got close to that distance. but in tend it was bautista and fielder. jose leads with 27 homers. that meant nothing in the final. he could muster only seven in the last round. fielder doubled that. smashed a beastly 12 in the final. ended the night with 28. the champ in 2009 prince is once again the king of the derby. he joins ken griffey jr. to win multiple tighters. the giants' matt canes started and verlander will take the mound for the a.l. watch closely in the middle of the screen. one of kansas city's finest made

the juggling grab. sign that guy up. the long arm of the law, that's had some pretty good hands. that's your early look at sports on "early today." i'm fred roggin the latest attempt to pump life into "american idol's" rating. your early morning entertainment headlines are straight ahead. plus if you were to get a come hundred,000 miles out of your car, wait till you hear this record breaker. you're watching "early today."

and welcome back to "early today." i want to show you. at least a few showers here and there. one lightning storm west of beaumont. we'll look for a few more to fire up, especially during the heat of the afternoon. dallas, you could see a few of those. d.c., maybe an isolated chance here or there. better chance to cross lower mississippi valley and the southeast as well as areas outside of denver and the front edge. if you're watching us on idaho's channel 7 don't miss monarchs and foliage in a special walk-through exhibit at butterflies in bloom at zoo bois. that's your "early today" veenltd of the day lynn. 1 days after katie holmes shocked tom cruise with a divorce filing a deal has been reached. apparently she gets primary

custody of suri. holmes who was raised catholic will control her daughter's religious upbringing. she's concerned over cruise indoctrinating her to scientology which in part led to the split. she will also control suri's education. the settlement helps both cruise and scientology avoid drawing out what was already seen as a public relations disaster. elsewhere, fox executives desperate to revive "american idol's" ratings may drop long time randy jackson and replace him with one-time show runner upadam lambert. after witnessing a 100-mile-an-hour freeway game of cat and mouz with justin bieber and paparazzi last friday. a l.a. city council is warning of a, quote, tragedy waiting to happen. and this comes to us from

bay shore new york where one man is celebrating what is aringly the best automobile ever. the volvo he bought in 1966 now has more than 2 million miles on it. that is equivalent to more than 2,000 or a thousand trips around the world. so now he is quickly closing in on 3 million miles. so he is the only guinness world record holder for a high-mileage vehicle and he did it all with air conditioning because it cost too much when he bought the car for just over 4,000 bucks. >> i hat a turtle wagon that went 270,000 miles and i sold it. i wonder how much further it would have gone i wish i could see a picture of that. well, i'm lynn berry, and this is the first stop of the day today on your nbc station. [ female announcer ] with swiffer dusters,

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a little bit muggy to start off this tuesday morning, but hard to complain. only 74 degrees at 4:28. a far cry from this time last week. good morning. i'm aaron gilchrist. >> and i'm lin yang. welcome to tuesday, july 10, 2012. firefighters are trying to figure out what started flames at an elementary school. the fire was difficult to fight because the school doors were welded shut. according to "the washington

post," the school has been closed since 2009, but the building is still used by the d.c. public school system. today, there will be a vote on sweeping taxi reforms. it would require all cabs to install credit card readers, gps trackers and buttons to alert police of a dispute. most sound like improvements for customers, some drivers are not happy and hundreds protested the gps devices yesterday. the trackers would indicate whether cabs take longer routes to inflate prices or ignore parts of town. >> we support the credit card system. we support the price system. we support everything except the tracking device. that tracking device violates our privacy and the privacy of our customers. >> more protests schedule for